


Time and a Half

by DarcyDelaney



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Destiel - Freeform, M/M, You want fluff? I'll give you fluff, holiday fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-08 11:34:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8843158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarcyDelaney/pseuds/DarcyDelaney
Summary: Cas is stuck working a double on Christmas, meaning that he and Dean won't be able to spend the holiday together. Unbeknownst to him, though, Dean’s got plans to change that.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the SPN Holiday Mixtape, and is based off of "Christmas in the Room" by Sufjan Stevens.
> 
> Hope you enjoy, and have a fabulous holiday! <3

By the time Cas's break arrives, he’s so tired he can barely think straight.

He’s spent the morning dispensing medication and seeing off twenty-five different residents whose family members have come to pick them up for Christmas festivities, and now that he’s finally got a moment to himself, he walks stiffly toward the nurses’ station. There’s garland that’s clearly seen better days draped across the front of the desk, and a few paper snowflakes residents made during arts and crafts earlier in the week taped around it.

Hannah, one of the other nurses on duty on the second floor, looks up when she hears him approach. By the looks of it, working on Christmas has done nothing to dampen her spirits--she’s sporting a skewed Santa hat, earrings in the shape of little Christmas trees, and a warm smile.

“Jeannette’s family just came to pick her up,” he says, leaning on the desk and grabbing some chocolate from the box sitting next to her. A resident’s family had dropped them off as a small Christmas gift to the staff, and Cas wants to hug whoever brought them in.

“Merry Christmas to you, too,” Hannah says, taking a piece of chocolate for herself.

Cas grins sadly and taps his open palms against the desktop. “Sorry,” he says. “Merry Christmas, Hannah.”

“It's fine,” she says, giving him an understanding smile. “I'm sure this isn't on your list of places you'd like to be, while working a double, no less.”

Cas sighs, trying to prepare himself not to sound as disappointed as he feels. “Time and a half, and there's no way anyone else would've done it.”

“The joys of being the newbies on staff. Lucky us.” Hannah gets to her feet and peers down one of the hallways. The floor is quiet now, with the handful of residents without holiday visitors either watching TV or sleeping in their rooms. “You're welcome to take your break if you'd like.”

Cas hesitates. “Are you sure? I don't want to leave y--”

Hannah waves him off. “I've got chocolate, I've got my phone for Netflix, and I've got Uno if any of the residents want to play. I'll be fine.” She smiles at him again, a warm glint in her eye. “Go.”

 

When Cas shoves open the door to the break room, he makes a beeline for the couch and flops down onto it, letting one arm dangle off the side while the other rests on his chest. He closes his eyes for a few seconds, then looks around--the break room is just as stale-looking as the main hallways, the forced holiday cheer giving Cas secondhand embarrassment. Gabriel and Balthazar had set up a miniature tree in the corner, which is strung with lights--half of which have burnt out--and a mishmash of ornaments. All the decorations look like they want to be there just as much as Cas does, which is to say, not at all. There’s a half-eaten cake shaped like a snowman sitting on the break room table, left over from yesterday’s shift; Cas gives it a sidelong glance, then shakes his head and presses the heels of his hands into his eyes.

The couch is ratty and there’s a wayward spring digging into his back, but it’s better than being on his feet, and Cas tries to make himself comfortable. No matter how hard he tries, though, the one thing that would make him feel relaxed and content is still missing.

  


_When the alarm goes off at four in the morning, it's too loud and too close to his head. It feels like he'd_ just _found the warmest, most comfortable position under the covers, and now reality is intervening._

_He palms around on the nightstand until his fingers find the clock, and he smacks it off, rolling onto his back and staring at the ceiling. Dean mumbles something in his sleep before burrowing deeper under the covers and pulling Cas closer._

_“F’ck.”_

_Cas smirks, echoing his husband’s sentiment in his head. “Go back to sleep, Dean,” he says softly._

_“G’tta g’up,” Dean mumbles into his pillow. “‘S Chr’sm’s.”_

_Cas lets those words sink in for a few seconds, then sighs. He tilts his head to get a better view of the window: it's still dark outside, the world’s still asleep, and Cas can see the faintest glow of the white Christmas lights on their bushes outside reflecting up against the glass._

_“It_ is _Christmas,” Cas says, even though it doesn’t feel like it. He leans over and presses a quick kiss against Dean’s temple before untangling himself from Dean’s limbs and edging out from under the covers, doing his best to keep the drafty air of the bedroom away from Dean as he moves._

_The floor creaks under Cas's feet as he heads down the hall to the kitchen. He makes himself a cup of coffee and toasts a bagel, then makes his way into the living room. The coffee is too hot to drink, but Cas likes the feeling of the warmth of the mug in his hands; he holds it close to his face and peers over the brim, studying their Christmas tree._

_It's warm and welcoming, if a bit small and crooked, but it’s theirs. Covered with novelty ornaments and multicolored lights, it looks like the decorations were chosen by a twelve-year-old, but they'd agreed that if Cas got to decorate the outside of the house, then Dean had dibs on the tree. Cas grins and shakes his head before finally taking a sip of his coffee. It's a_ nice _morning, sure, but it would be perfect if it was six hours later, and Dean was lounging next to him on the couch._

_But that's not going to happen, because right now, they need the money more than the quality time. Dean’s picked up odd jobs to complement his full-time gig as an elementary school music teacher, so when the nursing home Cas works at had been looking for volunteers to work a double on Christmas at time and a half, Cas had wasted no time signing up._

_This year, December 25 is just an ordinary day._

_Suddenly, Cas isn't hungry. He forces his food down anyway, though, and gets to his feet to change into his scrubs._

_“Twelve more hours,” he mutters to himself._

  


The door to the break room creaks open, and Cas considers looking up, but chooses instead to keep his eyes closed and try to squeeze in a power nap to make the most out of his half-hour of freedom.

“Son of a _bitch_.”

Cas opens his eyes. That’s _definitely_ not Hannah.

He turns his head and can't do anything but stare at the break room’s newest entrant; Dean is standing in the doorway in his plaid flannel pajama pants and gray T-shirt. His arms are full, of what, Cas can't exactly tell, but the scowl on his face tells Cas that whatever Dean had been planning, something had gone wrong.

“Dean?” he asks hesitantly, swinging his legs off the couch and moving into a sitting position.

“Hannah told me you wouldn't be going on break until later,” Dean grumbles, taking a few staggering steps forward and depositing his armfuls of what Cas now recognizes as presents and Tupperware onto the break room table.

“What's going on?”

“I was supposed to have had time to set all this up,” he says absently, shoving the snowman cake aside to make more room for his parcels. He picks up a Tupperware container and examines its contents before pulling the lid off and setting it back on the table. Cas gets to his feet and walks over to him, snaking his arms around Dean’s hips and resting his chin on Dean’s shoulder.

“Can you tell me what all this _is_?”

Dean ignores him, instead asking, “Did you do that?” and jerking his thumb back toward the Christmas tree in the corner.

“No, that was--”

“Good. It’s pathetic.”

Cas lifts his chin and stares at him, eyes wide. “Don’t be rude, Dean.”

“I’m not--you know what,” Dean says, more to himself than to Cas, “I need you to give me like, five minutes.” He swivels around in Cas's arms and gives him a quick, distracted kiss before pulling himself out of Cas's embrace and ushering him toward the door.

“I, Dean--” Cas stammers, trying and failing to dig his heels into the floor as Dean pushes him.

“Five minutes, I swear.” Once Cas is out in the hallway, Dean flashes him a crooked little grin and closes the door in his face.

Cas stares at the door for a few seconds, unsure of what to do next. The door doesn’t have a lock; he could--he _should_ \--just open it and go back inside and spend the rest of his break trying to figure out what Dean is up to, but something gives Cas pause. Instead, he glances around and heads back over to the nurses’ station.

Hannah is still sitting at the desk, her iPhone propped up against a stack of medication binders, the box of chocolates sitting conveniently next to her elbow. She’s absorbed in whatever show she’s watching, and doesn’t register Cas's presence until he starts drumming his palms against the desktop.

When she notices him, she straightens in her chair immediately and focuses on him, not even bothering to pause her show. “Did I mess it up?” she asks.

Cas furrows his brows together. “Well, considering I don't even know what ‘it’ is--”

“Dean called earlier asking when you'd be going on break. He'd wanted me to stall you, but I was listening to him while also trying to get Dominic to eat something, so I must've mixed up what he said.” She gives him a disappointed look, then reaches into the chocolate box and hands him a square. “Tell him I'm sorry.”

Cas hesitantly takes the chocolate and sticks it into his pocket. “Hannah, what's all this about?”

Before she can answer, though, they both hear the door to the break room swing open with a creak. Cas can feel Hannah craning her neck to look over her shoulder as he peers down the hall curiously. Dean pokes his head out and flashes a crooked grin at the both of them, then motions for Cas to come over.

Cas stumbles forward when he feels Hannah’s hands shove against his back; when he glances over his shoulder at her, she’s smiling, too. He makes a beeline for Dean, who’s leaning against the doorjamb now, his arms folded across his chest, feet crossed at the ankles. Joe Cool in pajamas.

“Dean, why are you--”

Cas cuts himself off when he catches a glimpse of the break room. The Christmas tree is still lopsided and badly decorated, but now there are presents--presents from their living room--piled underneath. The snowman cake is gone, replaced by platefuls of cookies and truffles. Dean must’ve made those today; Cas doesn’t remember seeing them earlier.

When Cas has taken in as much of the scene as he can, he turns and faces Dean with wide, stunned eyes. “Dean, I...what is this?”

Dean’s eyes are bright with excitement, and he shrugs. “Turns out Christmas fucking sucks when you have to spend it without your best friend.”  


 

“So?” Dean asks. “What d’you think?”

Cas's head is resting in Dean’s lap and Dean is carding his fingers absently through Cas's hair. He looks up at Dean, who’s got his new scarf wrapped sloppily around his neck, and lets one of his arms drop down off the side of the couch, his fingers tracing along the cover of one of his new books. There’s wrapping paper strewn around in front of the tree from their opened gifts, but Cas leaves it be for now; Hannah won’t mind, especially when he gives her the container of truffles Dean had made just for her.

“I think we have a new Christmas tradition here,” Cas says, and laughs when Dean scoffs and playfully smacks Cas's forehead.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” he says, rolling his eyes.

“Seriously, though,” Cas says, craning his neck up to get closer to Dean’s lips. Dean gets the point and meets him halfway, and warmth runs through Cas as he feels Dean’s lips curl up into a smile against his. Dean drags his teeth gently over Cas's bottom lip before leaning back again to let Cas finish his sentence. “Thank you.”

Dean waves him off. “Didn’t wanna stay in the apartment alone all day, and Hannah was game, so…” He shrugs, an _I had no other choice_ look on his face, as if making truffles and cookies and filling the car with gifts to bring to his husband’s place of employment on Christmas day was the only logical solution available to him.

“I’ve still got four hours left,” Cas says hesitantly.

“And?”

“What’re you going to do until I’m done?”

Dean stretches out his limbs as much as he can with Cas's head still resting on his lap. “Sleep. Duh.” He looks down at Cas and narrows his eyes. “That work?”

Cas stares up into Dean’s green eyes, and before he can second-guess himself, he grabs a fistful of Dean’s shirt and gently tugs him down, pressing their lips together in a longer kiss.

“Yes,” he says when they finally break apart. “That works.”

It takes a few minutes, but eventually, Cas can feel Dean’s body go lax under him as he starts to doze off, and he grins up at Dean’s sleeping form. Dean’s head is tilted back over the top of the couch and he’s snoring softly, his mouth slightly ajar. He’s stopped carding his fingers through Cas's hair and is simply resting his hand on top of his head now, and Cas hasn’t felt this content in a long time. He’s only got a few minutes left of his break, but suddenly, he’s got the energy boost he needs to finish up his last few hours before he can go home with Dean and they can spread out on their own couch in front of their own tree.

Once it’s time for him to get back to work, Cas gently pulls himself to his feet, taking care not to disturb Dean. He’s about to head back out to work when he remembers something. He digs into his pocket and pulls out the small chocolate from Hannah, then places it on the armrest next to Dean’s hand. A little ball of warmth starts to spread in his gut, and he grins before leaning over and pressing a kiss to his husband’s forehead.

“Merry Christmas, Dean.”


End file.
